SOIL COMPACTION RESEARCH IN AREAS UNDER INTEGRATED CROP-LIVESTOCK SYSTEM AND PERMANENT PRESERVATION

Abstract

With the many activities on the soil, it may suffer some changes, due to the additional load and consequent compaction, which may interfere with its use and quality. Thus, the analysis of the agricultural compaction dynamics on soil in croplivestock system management it is necessary. The aim of this paper was to analyze the agricultural soil compaction in different situations inherent to the integrated crop-livestock system, and at a permanent preservation area. To this end, a completely randomized design experiment was mounted, in a factorial scheme 4 x 2, with three replications, being the treatments: activity performed on soil (4 situations - A1: at the end of the corn crop cycle; A2: after corn mechanical harvesting; A3: after cattle grazing; A4: permanent preservation area) and depth of the soil layer (2 levels - C1: 0-0.15 m and C2: 0.15-0.30 m). Samples for the study were collected from a agricultural area, in order to be analyzed soil bulk density, porosity, volumetric water content and soil penetration resistance. The grazing activity does not cause soil compaction in the analyzed area, since the density and porosity of the soil were equal after performing the activities related to crop-livestock production system. Thus, crop-livestock integration was an alternative to area use, without it being degraded by compaction.